Question about the Watchmen's Comedian

[doctorchallenger]

Is there documentary evidence stating that Moore and Gibbons developed The Comedian from Charlton's Peacemaker?  Or is just a theory?  I've always had the feeling that the character might have been as much of a Prankster analog - see profile from one-time skinner Vigilante here: http://members.tripod.com/originalvigilante/prankster.htm

The world of the Prankster was set in the futuristic Ultrapolis ... "a city which may never exist! But if it does, it will be a place ruled by brute force ... where love, laughter, music, art, every expression of human dignity can be a crime punishable by death!" Signs bear the bleak slogan "Inefficiency is a crime". The Prankster's adventure opens with our hero stopping a public execution of a man convicted of playing music without a permit. I know ... a bit over the top, right? Well, it was the sixties, you know. The Prankster was your typical "outsider" hero, fitting with the stereotype of the times.

A gadget using hero that "uses" humor to critique the system. IT seems to me that this moght be a closer analog tot he Commedian.  All of the other Watchmen are much closer to their original forebears than the Comedian is to Peacemaker, it seems to me.  Just a thought.

[tommyboy]

Certainly The Comedian's attitude and methods mirror a distorted view of Peacemaker, in the same way the other Watchmen mirror their analogues at Charlton..
And I could see that from Moore's political perspective the name "Peacemaker" could be seen as a sort of joke. Joke as in, Comedian. The Comedian does nothing funny, Peacemaker has little to do with "Peace".
But I have no documentary evidence that he is a direct "analogue" of Peacemaker.
I can quote from Dave Gibbons "Watching the Watchmen" book, on the creative process;
"The Charlton characters were frankly, second-stringers and somewhat derivative of established heroic prototypes. We could now create our own embodiments of those basic types, but fine-tune them to our own sensibilities".
Which is ambiguous in answering the question here, but explains some creative "drift" from direct analogues, to rougher approximations.

[JKCarrier]

A gadget using hero that "uses" humor to critique the system.

The Comedian doesn't really "use humor" (or gadgets for that matter). His name is ironic -- The Comedian isn't funny, just as The Peacemaker isn't peaceful. Nor does he really critique the system; he's a loyal government agent who has no qualms about killing (presidents and protesters alike) in order to keep things running smoothly. Just as the Peacemaker was willing to put aside his pacifist ideals for what he saw as a greater good.

Once it was decided that they wouldn't be using the Charlton characters, Moore and Gibbons pretty much went off on their own direction. Some of the characters ended up changing just a little (like Nite Owl and Dr. Manhattan), others went much farther afield (Silk Spectre has little in common with Nightshade), depending on what worked best for the story.

[Jakew]

It was public record that the Watchmen characters were based on Charlton characters (the storyline was originally supposed to feature the Charlton characters). I'm not sure whether Moore ever officially said "Rorschach = Question, Nite Owl = Blue Beetle, Comedian = Peacemaker, etc" though.

[Epimethee]

The irony of the Peacemaker's name might have been inspired by this then recently-retired Peacemaker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_B-36 which was a? heavy nuclear bomber.

[MJB]

According to documents written by Alan Moore contained in the "Absolute Watchmen" HC I own, The Comedian = Peacemaker.

There's a write up about his (Peacemaker) motivations and part in the story with a re-write on the same page that was written after the Charlton characters were pulled from the project by DC.

So yes, he was originally intended to be the Peacemaker.

-MJB